When Kids Get Sick and how to tell if your child is well or not

I have written this type of blog before When our kids are sick and will continue to do so and the one thing that I think should be free or inexpensive to do is first aid, so good for parents because kids will get sick or have accidents and often will be unsure as to what to do.

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My son was unwell this week and so not the start to the summer holidays we wanted and getting an appointment for him to see a doctor was not easy but did get seen and turns out his has swollen glands and she thinks it is tonsillitis and needed a doctor, and speaking the receptionist to get an appointment told us to go to A and E.

You can see why A and E departments are struggling and all it needed was for the GP to check him over and was prescribed penicillin and if we had gone to A and E could have been waiting for ages and being that he has ADHD and was a little scared of the appointment would have caused him such distress so advice don’t let the GP Surgeries fog you off keep calling until you can get an appointment.

The main indicator for us was that Henry (my son) appetite had gone and he loves food and had a fever, along with fatigue and was quite red in the cheeks or pale. So look at the colour of their skin.

He was getting upset saying his stomach was hurting and had a high temperature and used Calpol to help, but his temperature kept fluctuating between 37.1 to 39.5 and it is worrying and so it is important that you get medical help. Being a parent we aren’t all doctors or nurses and we rely on our GP surgeries and you can talk to the pharmacy too. who can help but can only give a certain amount of advice and shouldn’t be made to feel guilty in feeling you are wasting the doctor or nurses time.

If they begin to get a rash and they have purple around the lips seek medical help straight away and if they become dehydrated and not weeing get help straight away too, and the other indicator we had for Henry was not being able to pooh easily and so was constipated. Sorry for TMI but want to keep my blogs real and use it as a source to help, should you be unsure and is a real indicator the your child is unwell and needs help by your GP and if, like I say begin to get worse and still unwell after trying everything you can to help your children get better, go back to your doctor. As the Doctor who helped us said to us, if no better to contact her for further advice and help.

As parents we know our kids and if they start to become withdrawn and have lack of energy then it is us parents who should be the dictator of if their child needs medical help or not and shouldn’t have to have a battle when calling the doctors for an appointment, to seek medical help and support.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

If your child wants to help with the chores let them

So this evening after my son had his wash, he wanted to help with putting things away in the kitchen and felt reluctant, and then the alarm bells went off in my brain and said “No let him” and check out Mel Robbins Podcast about it: https://www.melrobbins.com/podcasts/episode-70

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The more my son gets used to helping around the home and encouraged, the more he will stick to wanting to help out. It is going to help him be independent which as a parent is so important because me and his dad, and family won’t be around forever and I want him to be responsible. It is good to have responsibilities because it adds value to things and looking after the roof over his head. Not take things for granted and the more he learns to do daily chores the more he will automatically do it and tonight he helped clear the plates and bowls in the kitchen after they were washed up, without being asked and we, me and my mum, were like what else can be have him do now? Now he is taking an interest in doing everyday tasks.

Kids aren’t slaves nor is anyone, so not getting him to do everything, as he could end up getting fed up with it, but have your children do the simple things. Like making their beds, getting their own bag ready, helping to make their pack lunches for the Summer holidays when going out rather then buying food and carrying their own bags.

It is going to good long term, and kids like to take charge so let them do so, by setting boundaries of what they can and can’t do, and knowing when it is time for us parents to take charge.

Every step of their growth is as important from the beginning of their lives to the very end and of course some children and is hard to even type, die in their childhood and that is hard to comprehend, but I mean the end, meaning when they reach old age and had a full life.

Henry wanted to help with making his dinner and so he put on his apron and a hat I bought him for Easter this year and did little bits like cut his pizza, which we shared and carry the chicken bites, to go with it.

When we go shopping he likes to help carry the basket and look for the food. There were times he could be a monster and cause havoc but now he wants to get involved which is great and makes these times precious, because seeing him develop is out of this world and be more self aware.

So if your kids want to help with the chores then let them.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

Limiting our kids and challenging them

Today my son’s dad and I went to see his new school that he is going to because they have smaller classes and hopefully helps him to concentrate more and not be easily distracted.

My son has ADHD and on the Autism Spectrum, and it is challenging, but when it comes to my son the one thing we want to do is along with his school, to do more challenging learning, by reading bigger books, because he can do a lot more than what he shows at school and so we want his learning to not be limited and to expand.

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With this new school he won’t be given homework, and so will be learning at school, and feels this leaves space for us me and his dad and grandparents to create activities that is educational but fun, example have him do painting to help with grip as his writing is getting good, but not consistent and will help with his grip and he has a wooden dinosaur to paint and if you check out The Works they have wooden objects like houses, to paint and craft.

I want to get him doing chores, like making his bed when prompted but I want him to do this automatically without being asked. He decides when we wake up and I thought being a mum meant to pulling him out of bed, but no it is the other way around, he drags me out of bed.

My son this weekend wanted to take a picture with my phone and I was a big sceptical but feel bad in feeling reluctant to let him so I let him take photos and going to give him a camera as I do have one that I haven’t used I just need to find the cable to transfer photos to my laptop and print off.

I want him to learn more in terms of cooking and doing more baking that he does with my Step dad and when he is tall enough to help wash up and he has shown interest in doing laundry and has asked me if he can put the clothes in it, and so going to teach him and yes it may be a challenge because of separating clothes to wash, but the more I let him do the laundry the more he will learn more on everyday challenging tasks.

Thank you for you who follows this blog site and if you are new then welcome, and if you like my blogs then you can follow me, and so when I publish a blog you will be alerted by email and this blog site is all about parenting and my life a mum, and what I have learned as a parent.

I do write a newsletter each month and so if you’d like to read them check out my blog site Everyone can build a castle, where each month I post it and talks about my content that I post on other blogs and my content on Youtube, as I do have three Youtube channels.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X

The Summer holidays only two weeks away

Hello and thank you for taking the time to read my blogs and following me. I have been going over the holidays and need to sit down and plan further so my son and we can spend time with family, visiting places not visited yet that I know he’d like to see, example Guildford, St Albans, ride on the tram, for my son who keeps asking what it is and not ridden on for ages and not since Henry was born. Making sure we have plenty of time together and have booked a weekend trip to see friends who live in the South Coast of England again and fitting in as much as we can to keep our son entertained.

My son loves trains so planning to see where to go that is new but still enjoys it and visit further up London and places we can walk and just explore. Of course like this week there may be disruption, so need to plan around that and may have to travel by bus.

When visiting London get an Oyster card, this allows you travel all over London and can work on the trains, trams and buses. If you are travelling out of London then you can use your debit card, but there are rail cards available that can give you discounts on travelling on the trains.

I did a video on my Youtube my way of living talking about the Summer Holiday’s: https://youtu.be/sxjpUZnd4ik It is good to plan indoor activities aswell as outdoors because of the weather,and there are plenty of things you can do. Example: Henry and I play shops, as kid I loved playing card games and last weekend my step dad taught Henry how to play Solitaire and can teach this game on their tablets/IPads or with actual physical cards on the table. My son was playing Subbuteo, the football game where you have a pitch with little figures, bowls and create tournaments, like me and my friends did at school, playing countdown when we couldn’t play outside.

Room decorating. I watch a lot of organization videos and why not have you and your kids do a makeover in their bedrooms, on a budget and you can get paints from stores like Wilkos or Homebase, so you can change a room around, with your kids and planting indoor plants, if not out in the garden.

Take kids to the garden centre to choose flowers and plants to keep and look after and have them plant them.

Have your kids cook a summer meal with you or for you, with supervision and have a kids party with friends and family. It doesn’t have to be a birthday or anniversary to have a party just enjoy the time off to catch up with friends and make it a special occasion.

I will be taking my son Swimming which I always do now and spend a few days at a kids club called Youngstars, and plan to take my son with family to do something like Chessington World of Adventures which is not far, Bocketts Farm , London Zoo and if the weather is good take a London Cruise riverboat to Canary Wharf and North Greenwich, where there are restaurants and going to see if there any shows on we can go to up London. I have booked to take Henry to see Blippe at the end of the holidays at the Rose in Kingston Upon Thames and they often put plays on and shows at the Polka Theatres.

So lets get ready and there will be deals on picnic and BBQ food and so worth checking out and pack lunch type food too.

Many thanks for reading,

Carrie X